Iran to send human to space by 2025

TEHRAN – While announcing continued studies to send humans to space, the head of Iran’s Aerospace Research Institute (ARI) said they may try sending a robot or a live creature before the final stage of sending a human.

Regarding the project for sending a live creature to space which was halted, the head of ARI Fathollah Ommi stated “we have successfully launched a monkey to space, and now we are conducting research to send a man to space.”

“The preliminary measures to send a human to space are currently underway and the project is to be carried out in two suborbital and orbital phases” said Ommi, stressing that the project is in the study stage at the moment.

According to the head of ARI, the orbital phase of the project will be operational by 2025 and the suborbital phase will take place before that.

When asked whether they will send another live creature into space before a human, he said “it might happen.” Since they intend to launch the live creature to different altitudes of space, several experiments must be conducted to test the selected trajectory for sending a human. It is required to launch the live creature at least 6 times, before they are ready to carry out this mission with a human onboard, he added.

“We might use a robot or another live creature prior to sending a human. If this mission is successful, we will launch a human to space after conducting the necessary tests.” Ommi stated.